1. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to fiber optic cable assemblies, and particularly to a hybrid fiber optic pigtail assembly that may terminate in a mass fusion splice or individual optical fiber splices.
2. Technical Background
Benefits of optical fiber use include extremely wide bandwidth and low noise operation. Because of these advantages, optical fiber is increasingly being used for a variety of applications, including but not limited to broadband voice, video, and data transmissions. Fiber optic networks employing optical fibers are being developed and used to deliver voice, video, and data transmissions to subscribers over both private and public networks. These fiber optic networks often include separated connection points at which it is necessary to link optical fibers in order to provide “live fiber” from one connection point to another connection point. In this regard, fiber optic equipment is located in data distribution centers or central offices to support interconnections.
The optical fibers used to interconnect the different optical components may be organized into optical cable assemblies to provide ease of installation, maintenance and routing. Some of the optical cable assemblies may be in the form of pigtail cable assemblies. Typically, pigtail cable assemblies comprise one or more optical fibers which are connectorized on one end but not on the other. The connectorized end of a pigtail may terminate at a connection point such as at an optical adapter to be optically connected with another optical fiber terminated at the optical adapter. The other end of the pigtail is not connectorized and may be spliced to other optical fibers. Thus, a pigtail cable assembly may allow for each optical fiber may be individually spliced. Alternatively, the pigtail cable assembly may allow for all of the optical fibers to be spliced as one using a mass splice, for example a mass fusion splice.
Depending on the application, a pigtail cable assembly allowing for individual fiber splicing may be used or a pigtail cable assembly allowing for mass optical fiber splicing may be used. For example, a pigtail cable assembly allowing for individual fiber splicing may be used in a fiber optic component used as a distribution point to provide downstream distribution of fiber optic service. As another example, a pigtail cable assembly allowing for mass optical fiber splicing may be used in an optical component receiving a optical feeder cable from an upstream fiber optic service source. Accordingly, different cable assemblies allowing for different type of splicing, individual optical fibers or mass optical fibers, are required depending on the application of the fiber optic component in which the pigtail assembly is positioned.